This invention relates to stair rail supports, and more particularly to such supports which are adapted to be clamped to existing stair rail spindles.
More attention is currently being addressed toward child safety than may have been the case in the past. Among the areas of safety concern are the possibility of a toddler""s fall when traversing steps, such as steps leading from one floor of a dwelling to another. In general, very small children can be prevented from obtaining access to steps by the use of temporary gates which are located so as to prevent child access to the stairs. As noted by Turner in U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,201, such gates are inconvenient to adults. Such gates may be necessary when the child is in the crawling or toddler stage and completely unable to navigate the steps. At a somewhat older stage, children can navigate stairs with the assistance of an adult. However, gates prevent a child around this stage of development from accessing the stairs, and thus not only prevent the child from learning to navigate steps on their own, but also inconveniently require that an adult or older child be present whenever the child wishes to traverse the stairs.
When a child reaches the stage of being able to navigate stairs with assistance, it is very advantageous to have a stair rail at a height which the child can reach, so that they learn to hold a rail during the traverse. Most adult stair rails are too high for such a child, so that learning is impaired, and adult or older-child assistance is required for a longer time than may be advantageous. For this reason, various arrangements for child stair rails are suggested by the abovementioned Turner patent and others.
The Turner patent relates to an elongated vertically oriented supplemental support which bears a conventional rail support at its bottom. Such a conventional rail support is readily available, and includes a metal rosette monolithic with a projecting angled bracket. The rosette defines two or three screw holes, for being fastened by a corresponding number of screws to a stud in conventional stud/wallboard construction, with the rosette lying flat against the wallboard. The projecting angled bracket provides a horizontally-disposed portion which, when in use, lies against the lower portion of a wooden stair rail. The conventional rail support is also ordinarily supplied with a separate clamp formed to the shape of the horizontally-disposed portion of the angle bracket, which is mounted under the horizontally-disposed portion and screwed to the underside of the stair rail. The rosette/angled-bracket part of the conventional rail support is illustrated as item 12 in the Turner patent, and its horizontally disposed portion is illustrated as 62. The clamp is illustrated as 60. The Turner patent contemplates the use of a plurality of such vertically oriented supplemental supports. To attach the vertically oriented supplemental support to a wall, the original conventional rail supports are removed from the wall, which leaves holes in the wallboard. The vertically oriented supplemental support is mounted with preformed holes in its upper portion overlying the exposed holes in the wallboard. The original conventional rail support is placed over the preformed holes, and the vertically oriented support is fastened in place by means of screws which extend through the previously-removed upper conventional rail support, the preformed holes in the supplemental vertically oriented support, and into the wall. Thus, the holes in the wall are covered. Two or more such vertically oriented supports are mounted at spaced-apart locations, so that sets of conventional rail supports are available for supporting a stair rail. The original stair rail can then be affixed to the upper set of conventional rail supports, and the new child stair rail can be affixed to the lower set of conventional rail supports.
A shaped metal bracket is described by Roberts in U.S. Pat. No. 3,005,242. The metal bracket is screwed to the underside of the adult stair rail, and projects downward to support a child rail. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,337,528, 5,853,166, and 6,209,854 describe supplemental or child rail supports which clamp in various ways to the adult stair rail. U.S. Pat. No. 1,785,487 issued Dec. 16, 1930 in the name of McAvoy describes an arrangement including an elongated vertically oriented piece which holds two rails, which aid in clamping a gate in a stairway.
Improved supplemental rail support arrangements are desired.
A spindle clamp according to an aspect of the invention is for supporting a supplemental stair rail by means of at least one vertically oriented stair rail spindle. The spindle clamp includes a generally planar first body portion defining a first length along a length axis, a first width along a width axis, and a first thickness which may be less than either the first length or the first width, so as to define first and second broad surfaces. The first width of the first body portion is of a dimension which is less than the inter-spindle dimension of the spaced-apart, mutually parallel stair-rail spindles, so that the first body portion, when oriented with the length axis parallel with the spindles and with the plane of first body portion parallel with a plane containing the axes of the spindles, can pass between the spindles. The first body portion also includes one portion of a fastening device. A generally planar second body portion defines a second length along a length axis, a second width along a width axis, and a second thickness which may be less than either the second length or the second width so as to define first and second broad surfaces. The second body portion also includes a second portion of the fastening device. The fastening device, when in use, tends to draw the first surface of the first body portion toward the first surface of the second body portion, whereby, when the first body portion is located on one side of the plane containing the axes of the spindles and the second body portion is located on the other side of the plane containing the axes of the spindles, with a spindle therebetween, operating the fastening device tends to tighten the first and second body portions against opposite sides of the spindle to thereby stabilize the spindle clamp. The spindle clamp further includes a rail support element projecting from the second side of one of the first and second body portions, for engaging a stair rail.
A spindle clamp according to another aspect of the invention is for supporting a supplemental stair rail by means of, or with the aid of, spaced-apart, mutually parallel, vertically oriented stair rail spindles. The spindle clamp includes first and second body portions and a projecting rail support. The first body portion defines a first length along (parallel with) a length axis, a first width along (parallel with) a width axis, and a first thickness which may be less than either the first length or the first width, so as to define a generally planar structure with first and second broad surfaces. In one embodiment of the invention, the first width of the first body portion is a dimension which is less than the inter-spindle dimension of the spaced-apart, mutually parallel stair-rail spindles, so that the first body portion, when oriented with its length axis parallel with the spindles and with the plane of first body portion parallel with a plane containing the axes of the spindles, can pass between the spindles. The first length of the first body portion in this embodiment is greater than the inter-spindle dimension, so that the first body portion, when oriented with the first width axis parallel with the spindles, cannot pass between the spindles. The first body portion also includes one portion of a fastening device. In a particular embodiment, the portion is one of a clearance aperture for a screw and a threaded aperture for the screw.
The second body portion of the spindle clamp in this other aspect of the invention is also generally planar, and defines a second length along a length axis, a second width along a width axis, and a second thickness which may be less than either the second length or the second width so as to define first and second broad surfaces. The second body portion also includes a second portion of the fastening device, which in the one embodiment is the other one of the through and the threaded aperture for the screw. The fastening device, when in use, tends to draw the first surface of the first body portion toward the second surface of the second body portion, whereby, when the first body portion is located on one side of the plane containing the axes of the spindles and the second body portion is located on the other side of the plane containing the axes of the spindles with at least one spindle located therebetween, operating the fastening device tends to tighten the first and second body portions against opposite sides of the spindles and thereby stabilize the spindle clamp. The spindle clamp further comprises a rail support element projecting from one of the second side of the first body portion and the first side of the second body portion for engaging a stair rail. Most applications will require a set of two or more such spindle clamps, or at least one such spindle clamp and a wall-mount support.
A method according to another aspect of the invention is for mounting a spindle clamp for supporting a supplemental stair rail by means of spaced-apart, mutually parallel, vertically oriented stair rail spindles, where each stair rail spindle defines an axis, and the axes together define at least a local spindle plane. Each spindle clamp includes (a) a first body portion, (b) a second body portion, and (c) a rail support. The first body portion is generally planar, and defines a first length along a length axis, a first width along a width axis, and a first thickness which may be less than either the first length or the first width, so as to define first and second broad surfaces. The first width of the first body portion is a dimension which is less than the inter-spindle dimension of the spaced-apart, mutually parallel stair-rail spindles, so that the first body portion, when oriented with the length axis parallel with the spindles and the plane of first body portion parallel with a plane containing the axes of the spindles, can pass between the spindles. The first length of the first body portion is greater than the inter-spindle dimension, so that the first body portion, when oriented with the length axis perpendicular with the spindles and parallel with the spindle plane, cannot pass between the spindles. The first body portion also includes one portion of a fastening device The second body portion is generally planar, and defines a second length along a length axis, a second width along a width axis, and a second thickness which may be less than either the second length or the second width so as to define first and second broad surfaces. The second body portion also includes a second portion of the fastening device. The fastening device, when in use, tends to draw the first surface of the first body portion toward the first surface of the second body portion, so that, or whereby, when the first body portion is located on one side of the plane containing the axes of the spindles and the second body portion is located on the other side of the plane containing the axes of the spindles, operating the fastening device tends to tighten the first and second body portions against opposite sides of the spindles and thereby stabilizes the spindle clamp. The spindle clamp further includes a rail support element projecting from the second side of one of the first and second body portions, for engaging a stair rail. The method comprising the step of placing the first body portion adjacent the spindle plane, roughly between two mutually adjacent spindles, with the first length axis parallel with the axes of the spindles. The next step includes moving the first body portion perpendicularly toward and through the spindle plane, without causing the second body portion to pass through the spindle plane. The first body portion is rotated so as to bring the first length axis perpendicular to the spindle axes and parallel with the spindle plane, whereby at least one of the spindles lies adjacent the first body portion. In general, this rotation of the first body portion constitutes rotation in the plane of the first body portion. The second body portion is placed in a position in which the second length axis is roughly parallel with the first length axis, and on the opposite side of the spindle plane from the first body portion, if the second body portion is not already in such a position. In the given positions, the at least one of the spindles lies between the first and second body portions. The fastening device is then operated or tightened to thereby draw the first and second body portions toward each other with the at least one of the spindles located between the first and second body portions, to thereby fasten the spindle clamp to the at least one spindle. A stair rail can then be fastened to the rail support element.